In mid-October, Idaho Fish and Game conservation officers set up an artificial doe mule deer close to a road near Sublette in southeastern Idaho. Killing antlerless deer in that area is legal only for youth hunters, and shooting from a road is illegal for anyone. Yet, during the three-hour enforcement operation, the department issued 10 citations and four warnings to five adults and four youths who had shot at the decoy a total of 31 times. One of those cited was an adult shooting from an ATV loaded in the back of a truck. “He was using it like some sort of mobile tree-stand,” said District Conservation Officer Ryan Hilton. The incident was a sobering example of how many people are willing to take an illegal shortcut—commonly known as poaching—to get a big-game animal. Illegal hunting activities in Idaho include:

Killing a big-game animal without a license or tag.

Hunting out of season.

Hunting by a nonresident who has obtained a resident tag, generally from a resident friend.

Using a weapon not permitted in a particular hunt.

An adult hunting in a youth-only hunt.

Shooting from a vehicle or road.

Killing an animal, such as an endangered species, for which there is no legal season.

The Department of Fish and Game admits that it has only a vague idea of how many game animals are killed illegally. “It’s so hard to get a handle on it,” said Clearwater Region Conservation Officer Mark Hill, who’s in the process of creating a computer program to produce a map of unlawful wildlife harvests throughout the state. However, Hill said, that information will probably understate the true extent of the problem. He cited a study of deer ecology in south-central Oregon that incidentally collected data showing more deer killed illegally during the study than were killed legally. From June 2005 to September 2011, the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife radio-collared 591 mule deer. During the study, 216 deer were found dead. Of the 118 animals with a known cause of mortality, 49 were killed by hunters (other main causes of death were 38 deer killed by predators and 21 by motor vehicles). Of the hunted deer, 23 were killed in season and 26 were killed out of season (study author DeWaine Jackson cautions that those determinations were made from evidence found at the site, not from convictions). The study did not address other illegal methods that may have been used. More....

Source: Ecowatch.comBy Kaye SpectorWarming ocean waters in New England have caused shrimp populations to fall so low that shrimp fishing in the Gulf of Maine has been banned for the 2014 season. That means the small Maine shrimp sold by stores and served by restaurants will get scarce or disappear entirely. Often called bay shrimp or pink shrimp, the small tails are typically used in salads. The shrimp are often sold frozen and are available across the U.S. and around the world.The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section, which represents Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, last week approved the moratorium after an assessment showed the northern shrimp stock is overfished. The situation is so dire that it’s possible the ban could be extended for more than a year. The Section considers the stock to have completely collapsed with little prospect of recovery in the near future. Many fish in the Gulf of Maine are not surviving long enough to mature—a process called recruitment—due to increasing water temperatures and a decline in phytoplankton, which comprises the shrimp’s diet, the Section said. “Given the overwhelming evidence of recruitment failure and stock collapse and continuing unfavorable environmental conditions, the Section felt it was necessary to close the 2014 fishery to protect the remaining spawning biomass and allow as much hatch to take place as possible,” Terry Stockwell, the Northern Shrimp Section chairman, said. “When environmental conditions are poor, the ability of the stock to withstand fishing pressure is reduced,” Stockwell said. “With the stock at all time lows and only failed year classes to come, there is even greater loss of resilience for this stock.” More....

A bald eagle was shot dead in Hermon earlier this week, and game wardens are seeking the public’s help in finding the person responsible.

The bird was located Thursday in the area of Hermon Pond near the Souadabscook Stream, according to Cpl. John MacDonald of the Maine Warden Service. Shooting a bald eagle is a federal offense punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $100,000. Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to contact the Operation Game Thief hotline at 1-800-ALERT-US. A $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest is being offered. Operation Game Thief is a poaching hotline which offers rewards leading to arrests of people who hunt and fish illegally. Callers can remain anonymous while reporting information. Tips can also be sent online by visiting http://www.maineogt.org/

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed a revision in the critical habitat designation for a species of lynx listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

The proposal would designate more than 41,000 square miles within the states of Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Wyoming as critical habitat for the Canada lynx.The federal government is asking for public comment on aspects of the proposal, including whether areas where the lynx have recently moved into, including parts of New Hampshire and Vermont, should be added to the critical habitat.The proposed revision comes after several snowmobiling groups launched unsuccessful legal challenges of the previously designated critical habitat.As part of the proposal announced Wednesday, federal officials said they considering excluding more than 1,900 square miles of tribal lands within the states of Maine, Montana and Washington.The new critical habitat adds some land as well, including some private timber lands in northern Maine, as well as Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service land in northeastern Wyoming. The lynx have been protected since 2000.The Center for Biological Diversity applauded the Fish and Wildlife proposal, saying the extra space could help the rare wildcat whose population has been reduced by trapping and habitat loss. More....

A new report by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) identifies the nation’s top 10 amphibians and reptiles in need of immediate federal protection to stave off extinction. The list includes a yellow-legged frog from California’s high Sierras, a two-foot-long eastern salamander and a colorful northeastern turtle.

The report, Dying for Protection: The 10 Most Vulnerable, Least Protected Amphibians and Reptiles in the United States, details the population declines and ongoing threats that have left once-common species like the western pond turtle and boreal toad spiraling toward extinction. “These increasingly rare frogs, salamanders and turtles are on the fast track toward extinction if we don’t step up and rescue them,” said Collette Adkins Giese, a CBD lawyer and biologist who specializes in conserving amphibians and reptiles. “And it’s not just about protecting these irreplaceable amphibians and reptiles; it’s about protecting the health of the priceless environment we share with them.” Some of the species included in the report have lost more than 90 percent of their habitat and, without Endangered Species Act protection, many will continue to decline due to fragmentation of their declining populations, pesticide pollution, killer diseases and over-collection. Scientists now estimate that one in four of the nation’s amphibians and reptiles are at risk of extinction, yet they make up only 61 of the approximately 1,400 U.S. species protected under the Endangered Species Act. Last year the CBD and several internationally renowned conservation scientists, including E.O. Wilson and Thomas Lovejoy, filed a petition seeking Endangered Species Act protection for 53 of the nation’s most threatened species of amphibians and reptiles. In 2011 the CBD signed a landmark settlement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that is speeding protection decisions for 757 species, including dozens of amphibians and reptiles. More....

In early 2000, when the remaining U.S. populations of Atlantic salmon were proposed for federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, then-Gov. Angus King, then-Sen. Olympia Snowe, Sen. Susan Collins and industry lobbyists engaged in a coordinated fear-mongering parade in front of cameras and microphones.

At three emotionally charged public hearings, politicians warned that listing the salmon as endangered would ruin Maine's aquaculture, blueberry and forest-products industries. Thirteen years later, it's clear that those politicians behaved like Chicken Little. Salmon were added to the Endangered Species Act on Nov. 13, 2000. None of the doomsday predictions have materialized. Maine's blueberry industry is thriving, salmon have not crippled the state's forestry industry and salmon aquaculture limps along, although its struggles can hardly be blamed on wild salmon. Conversely, diseases resulting from the unnatural concentration of millions of farmed salmon are a serious threat to wild salmon. King, now a U.S. senator, made clear his opposition to the salmon listing: "There is no question that the species Atlantic salmon is neither endangered or threatened." More....

A Maine judge has found two men guilty of illegally fishing for lucrative baby eels. A Belfast District Court judge on Tuesday found 41-year-old Ralph Fowler Jr. of Franklin and 49-year-old George Trundy of Hancock guilty of fishing for the eels, known as elvers, without a license on Goose River in Belfast. The men claimed they were fishing for smelts. Fowler and Trundy were arrested in April on the same day that fishing for elvers without a license became a criminal offense in Maine. WABI-TV reports that the men were fined $4,250 each but weren't given any jail time. Poaching has been a problem in Maine the past two years after elver prices skyrocketed to $2,000 a pound.

Two of the four alleged poachers of the pricey American eel had their day in court Friday. George H. Anestis, 41, of Boxborough, Mass., and his father, George J. Anestis, 65, of Phippsburg, Maine, agreed to pay $2,000 fines each and have their nets and traps confiscated for poaching juvenile elver eels from Rhode Island.State environmental police apprehended the men April 7 as they pulled their catch from eel traps in the Seekonk River in Pawtucket. One of the men carried a bucket containing about 2.5 pounds of elvers as police approached him behind the Apex building. Police also confiscated a large cooler containing elvers in the back of their SUV.The men were staying at a nearby hotel and told police they had been in the area numerous times to poach the 2- to 4-inch elvers. They admitted seeing other elver poachers in the area. They said they sold their fish for about $1,000 a pound. They wouldn't divulge their buyers' names.Both were charged with misdemeanor offenses of exceeding the daily catch limit, possession of undersize American eel, fishing without a commercial license and obstruction of migratory fish passage.Alan L. Beaucage, 37, of Alna, Maine, and Jeremy J. Geroux, 35, of Newcastle, Maine, also were arrested and charged with the same offenses as the Anestises, following an April 14 incident in Pawtucket. Arrest warrants were issued for the arrest of Beaucauge and Geroux for their failure to appear May 10 in Superior Court. More....

The strange fugitive hunt that played out Friday in the vast saltmarsh between Seabrook and Hampton Falls has landed two Maine brothers in jail.But it has also put a spotlight on the illegal practice of harvesting a tiny, slimy fish that can command upward $1,800 per pound.Known as “elvers,” the targets of the harvest are juvenile American eels — not more than 6 inches long. And at this time of year, they migrate up rivers in large schools. Different from the more familiar slime eels and eels used as bait by fishermen off Gloucester and Cape Ann, the elvers are thin as spaghetti and translucent — but they are a hot commodity in Japan, where they are raised in fish farms to full size and sold to consumers.Police say the lure of that handsome price brought Matthew Kinney, 29, of Bremen, Maine, and his brother Justin, 35, of Mount Vernon, Maine, to the Hampton Falls River in an attempt to illegally catch elvers. According to Lt. Michael Eastman of New Hampshire Fish and Game, the two were spotted at around 5 a.m. by a routine Fish and Game patrol.Both complied at first with officers, but then the situation changed. Justin fled but was quickly captured, according to Eastman. But Matthew put up a more intense struggle, assaulting an officer who was attempting to arrest him, then falling into the river and trying to flee into the marsh —reportedly with a police handcuff attached to one wrist. But after making his way across the salt marsh to the Hampton Falls Inn, where the pair had a room, Eastman said, Matthew was taken into custody as well.Matthew Kinney faces three counts of assault and battery on police officer (felony), simple assault, resisting arrest, disobeying a conservation officer, and taking American Eels under six inches long. Bail was set at $5,000 cash. More....

New Hampshire Fish and Game officers have two men in custody and two buckets of baby eels as evidence of what they say is part of an international eel-poaching operation believed to be driven by a worldwide shortage of eels. Two brothers from Maine — 35-year-old Justin Kinney of Mount Vernon and 29-year-old Matthew Kinney of Bremen — are charged with taking eels without a harvest permit and taking glass eels less than 6 inches long. Matthew Kinney also is charged with assault on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest and disobeying a conservation officer. Officials say the younger Kinney fled with a handcuff fastened to one wrist, leading officers on a pursuit that involved dogs and a helicopter before he was apprehended at a hotel hours later. Fish and Game Lt. Michael Eastman said only two states on the Eastern seaboard — Maine and South Carolina — allow fishing and sale of baby eels, and both require permits. Eastman said two of his conservation officers were tipped that the brothers would be netting the baby eels in the Hampton Falls River and moved in to apprehend them shortly after 5 a.m. Friday. ‘‘We knew what they were doing and went to make the arrests,’’ Eastman said. Eastman said the brothers were compliant at first, then resisted arrest. Justin Kinney was cuffed immediately but his brother fought one of the conservation officers, fell into the river and fled through the marshland, Eastman said. A state police helicopter searched from above and police dogs tracked Matthew Kinney until police finally caught up with him in a room at the Hampton Falls Inn, where the brothers were staying. More....

Two brothers from Maine, suspected of poaching baby eels to sell for big money overseas, were arrested Friday morning after allegedly trying to slip away when authorities moved in to catch them.

Matthew Kinney, 29, of Bremen, and his brother, Justin, 35, of Mount Vernon, face several charges after they were scooped up by authorities following a land and air search that lasted nearly four hours.

Fish and Game Lt. Michael Eastman said authorities received a tip early Friday morning that two men were catching baby American eels in the Hampton River near Route 1.

Eastman said two conservation officers responded to the area shortly before 5 a.m. and found that the brothers had a "substantial amount" of young eels, which are illegal to harvest in New Hampshire.

When one of the officers attempted to arrest Matthew Kinney, Eastman said, Kinney assaulted the officer, was pepper-sprayed, and then fell into the river and later fled into the woods with a handcuff on one of his wrists. Justin Kinney ran into the marsh grass and was arrested a short time later.

Eastman did not identify the conservation officer who was assaulted, but he said the officer wasn't injured.

Police from Kensington, Hampton Falls and Seabrook, along with Fish and Game officers, New Hampshire State Police, Fish and Game and search dogs and a helicopter, assisted in the hunt for Matthew Kinney. More....

Maine’s 2013 elver fishing season is not playing out as a repeat of 2012. For one, the penalties now are higher, thanks to a new law that went into effect on Tuesday. Anyone who fishes or possesses the young American eels without a license now can be taken to jail for a first offense. Halfway through the annual 10-week season, prices and the volume of landings are both lower than they were a year ago, according to people connected with the industry. The suspected reason landings are lower so far this year is because air and water temperatures along the Northeast coast, including Maine, were unusually high in the spring of 2012. Elver fishing usually starts out slow in late March, when snow is still a factor, but last year the warm weather made elver landings heavy straight off the bat, people said in interviews this week. The current prevailing prices elver fishermen are getting have decreased from more than $2,000 per pound, but at around $1,600 they still are exceptionally high compared to what they were only a few years ago. The high demand in the Far East for the small clear or “glass” eels remains high enough that people have been willing to risk running afoul of the law because of the potential payday that comes with catching a few pounds in a few hours of work. Now, any act of illegally harvesting or possessing elvers is a criminal offense, meaning anyone without a valid license caught fishing or in possession of elvers can be arrested and, if found guilty, sentenced to serve jail time. Before the adoption of the new law, only repeat unlicensed violators could face criminal charges. It’s the second year in a row the state has increased penalties for elver fishing violations. In March 2012 the Legislature increased fines from $500 to $2,000 and, instead of limiting license suspensions to one year, gave the head of the state Department of Marine Resources authority to permanently revoke the license of a repeat offender. More....

An eel fishermen's organization is applauding the Maine Marine Patrol for the arrest of an out-of-state man who was cited for illegal possession of 41 pounds of baby eels.

Fishery officials this week announced that they had seized $61,000 worth of elvers from a New Hampshire man who was planning to sell them to an eel dealer in Newport. Officials said the man is believed to have harvested them illegally in another state before bringing them to Maine. The Maine Elver Fisherman's Association says eel poachers are "just thieves, plain and simple." The association says it supports measures to increase the penalties for illegal eel fishing.

The bonanza generated by elver fishing in Maine may be having a ripple effect in other states along the Eastern Seaboard where law enforcement officials say poaching appears to be on the rise. Maine residents have recently been charged in New Jersey and Massachusetts with poaching the juvenile glass eels, which can fetch more than $2,000 a pound. Only Maine and South Carolina allow elver fishing, raising concerns that some of the eels sold to dealers in Maine were netted elsewhere illegally. The law enforcement branch of the Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), which oversees the multi-state fishery, recently voiced its concerns in an internal memo. “A significant amount of illegal harvest occurs outside the two states where harvest is currently allowed, and illegally harvested eels are being possessed and shipped via those two states,” the committee wrote in the Feb. 1 document.